Response to segment on unschooling by an unschooler

I was so angry at Good Morning America that I made a video. It is long, but I had a lot I wanted to say. I made some shorter videos that might be easier to watch.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• education
• homeschooling
• homeschool
• unschooling
• adult unschoolers

[paxguerilla]

I homeschooled, mainly self-taught until college, half of which I did out of classrooms. So I am interested, why do you choose the term unschool rather than homeschool? The theory and experiences sound very similar. I now have 3 children, and they also learn at home. I am not really fond of either term, we simply say that we "learn at home."

[goatprincess84]

@paxguerilla I use unschool because if I say homeschool, people think that means doing "school" at home. Which was not what I did...unschooling isn't really the best term, I agree. Why choose a word that only implies what you're NOT doing? It's better to use a word that implies what you ARE doing. But since the unschooling definition matches what I did, that's what I use. I'm all for saying "learned outside of a classroom" or something along those lines though.

[spongebobjazzpants]

if i'm interested in something at school and the bell rings, then i'll go home and study it more. it's not like my curiosity about a subject stops when the bell rings. i've learned A LOT of things in school, some useful, some aren't, but i've learned A LOT of things on my own outside of school. not going to school altogether will make you miss a lot of experience. and wont you get bored at home all day?

[goatprincess84]

@spongebobjazzpants bored? oh heavens no. check out my video, "what do you do?" . Going to school can make you miss out on a lot of experiences as well. Sure, I missed out on the "typical" school experience, but I got that in college...and frankly from what I've heard, I don't feel shafted that I missed out on high school. but I don't mean to say that school kills curiosity entirely, or for everyone. My intent is to defend unschooling, not knock school.

[goatprincess84]

@Abacuseducation thanks! I very much agree...if I'm going to make a mess of my education, I'd rather do it myself than have someone else do it for me :-) Unschooling has, at the very least, imparted a great deal of personal responsibility on my shoulders.

[Abacuseducation]

Kudos! Nicely done. Public schooling is inevitably mediocre, but home and unschooling is whatever you make it -- which can be very good, as in your case, but not everyone is so lucky. It's still very hard to do worse than public school.

[tribblesnz]

Thanks for uploading this - and all your other videos (that I'm so going to check out!). I am 36 years old, and self-educated myself on a lot of stuff despite going to school. I'm pretty sure that we'll unschool our son (who is not yet a year old) but feel I need to work up the nerve for standing up to "the people" around us (including his grandparents). Your voice is helping. Thanks!

[TheLibertyMinute]

Thank you very much for sharing this. I'm about to send you a message about Unschooling. I hope to hear back from you when you have time!

[asubjectiveopinion]

We should regard schools as a safety net for those who lack the time or inclination to educate their children themselves.

They are like welfare, it's nice to know that it's there for those in need, but I hope I never have to use it.

[goatprincess84]

@Pentazoid111 it would be really hard to say. I don't feel I've ever experienced a time in my life when I wasn't learning all the time. I still consider myself an unschooler in some ways - I started circus school this year, along with continuing my work on Spanish and mixing musical tracks and recording an album with my friends - all new stuff, all exciting! it was the same when I was younger. each year, some new learning experience presented itself.

[Pentazoid111]

@goatprincess84 So , what period has been your greatest magnitude of intellectual growth throughout your unschooling career?

[fashiongurl37]

This is my first year in s a public school I am in 8th grad; I have always gone to privet school with small classes, I'm also Dyslexic. Two thing I really, really, do not like about the public school is that we sometimes have lunch at 10:00 in the morning! That is not lunch time, when I am home I normally eat lunch between 12:00 in the afternoon, to 3:00 3:30. (WTH) having lunch at 10:00, and having no other times to eat in till you get home. The other thing we can NOT wear hats inside.

[StupidTalkingTree]

just have to say, you are amazing. I've been unschooled since I was born, I'm almost 14. Never stepped foot inside of a school. Just recently started researching unschooling after going to NBTSC last week. & I didn't know about the good morning America video until tonight. & I'm just as pissed about it as you are, it makes unschooling sound like all it does is dumb kids down, & that's sure as hell not true. Well, just wanted to say you're really amazing. Thanks for making this video. <3

[bsenghor1]

YOU ARE THE LADY!!!!!!!!